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goatunit
Acolyte
USA
31 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Oct 2009 : 18:30:54
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Sadly, I missed out on the hey-day of enormous dungeon-crawls, and cut my teeth on intrigue-riddled, urban campaigns. Recognizing this, I have decided to design an elaborate dungeon for my players to explore. I thought I'd put out the call here for interesting encounters, traps and rooms.
What are some of your favorites, either from published adventures or your own devious notebooks?
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wintermute27
Learned Scribe
USA
179 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2009 : 19:11:39
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For general advice, there are a few printed sources that are good reference for dungeon inspiration.
I had the pleasure of running a "World's Largest Dungeon" campaign a few years back, and one of the nice things included was a list of random hallway "encounters" for the players to stumble upon. Some of them were basic (turn the corner and suddenly... orcs!) where others were more cryptic (a foul stench in the air or a human skull inside a rusted out helmet in the middle of a corridor where there was nothing before).
Also, I was reading through the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar adventure module for some backround work on an upcoming Cormyr campaign I've been planning and Ed has a rather nice "Dungeon Dressing Table" for use with the module that can easily be adapted to any dungeon environment. The book "GM Gems" by Goodman Games also has a similar list included.
For a specific example, this is a trap that I was subjected to years ago and have since stolen for use against some of my players. Have a small square room (big enough for the party to fit inside) with a small, round grate in the ceiling and floor, a lever on the wall next to some sort of timer (like an hourglass), and a small bit of sand or water on the floor near the grate. Once the party is inside, have the doors seal and the timer starts to run (have some sand dribble from the ceiling grate or water start running slowly down the walls for dramatic effect). Pulling the lever resets the timer (in my case, flips the hourglass), but does nothing else. Once the timer runs out, the doors open and the party is free to continue exploring.
Paired with a glyph of warning, this time wasting "trap" is a nice way to allow the BBEG at the end to know they're coming have time to set up his defenses. |
My Current Campaign: The Adventures of the Stonelanders |
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Sian
Senior Scribe
Denmark
596 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2009 : 19:24:35
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| an evil classic would be that a part in the corridor where there's suddenly a high roof, with reverse gravity, ... if really evil put an illusionary wall on it so you can't see it ... basicly making it a pit going up ... could also be done that you step on a trigger and it reverse the gravity, slamming them into the upwards pit (falling damage) and then, say, 5 rounds later stops letting them fall down taking falling damage once more |
what happened to the queen? she's much more hysterical than usual
She's a women, it happens once a month |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2009 : 19:36:31
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Other good ones for dungeon references are the two Ruins of Undermountain box sets and especially some of the older dungeon crawls like Temple of Elemental Evil or Caverns of Tsocanth.
A few of my favorites:
* a seemingly-normal hall with a pressure plate half-way down. When activated, the floor is covered in a Grease spell and the entire hall tilts at a 45 degree downward angle. Cue PC's sliding into whatever room or nasty thing you want at the bottom. Can also be a sneaky way of revealing the proper way to the goal, if the pressure plate is obvious and therefore easily disarmed, the party can be wandering around aimlessly for days.
* a room full of brown moss and a trap that activates a wand of fire when the PC's enter.
* and, of course, the old favorite from the Tomb of Horrors: throughout the dungeon are huge sculptures built into the walls of leering faces, their mouths gaping. Each mouth is about three feet across, and filled with a solid color. The colorful ones tend to be gates to other parts of the dungeon that have to be successfully navigated to get out, or get to the goal. The black ones, however, are spheres of annhilation... |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Randal_Dundragon
Seeker
USA
95 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2009 : 23:09:07
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| i remember one trap was a large room which had a really intricate fountian in it. Fountain happened to release jets of magma if anybody messed with it AND it radiated slight magic. Fun and deadly. |
Its simple really, Your an idiot and I'm simply a figment of your imagination |
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Fizilbert
Learned Scribe
USA
123 Posts |
Posted - 22 Oct 2009 : 13:27:50
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quote:
Originally posted by wintermute27
For a specific example, this is a trap that I was subjected to years ago and have since stolen for use against some of my players. Have a small square room (big enough for the party to fit inside) with a small, round grate in the ceiling and floor, a lever on the wall next to some sort of timer (like an hourglass), and a small bit of sand or water on the floor near the grate. Once the party is inside, have the doors seal and the timer starts to run (have some sand dribble from the ceiling grate or water start running slowly down the walls for dramatic effect). Pulling the lever resets the timer (in my case, flips the hourglass), but does nothing else. Once the timer runs out, the doors open and the party is free to continue exploring.
Paired with a glyph of warning, this time wasting "trap" is a nice way to allow the BBEG at the end to know they're coming have time to set up his defenses.
Haha, that's a variation of a trap that I've made myself as well. I'm also sure most of the DMs here have a variation of it as well.
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Fiz
Level 10 Vice-president
World of Elethril |
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Asgetrion
Master of Realmslore
Finland
1564 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2009 : 10:23:05
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quote:
Originally posted by goatunit
Sadly, I missed out on the hey-day of enormous dungeon-crawls, and cut my teeth on intrigue-riddled, urban campaigns. Recognizing this, I have decided to design an elaborate dungeon for my players to explore. I thought I'd put out the call here for interesting encounters, traps and rooms.
What are some of your favorites, either from published adventures or your own devious notebooks?
The most interesting dungeon rooms I've ever come across (both as player and DM) were in 'Haunted Halls of Eveningstar', 'Ruins of Undermountain' (the original boxed set; stay away from 'Ruins of Undermountain II', which is an inferior sequel to it) and the adventures from the Dungeon Crawl series ('Undermountain: Maddgoth's Castle', 'Undermountain: Stardock' and 'Undermountain: The Lost Level'). I highly recommend buying them, no matter the cost -- they're worth it!  |
"What am I doing today? Ask me tomorrow - I can be sure of giving you the right answer then."
-- Askarran of Selgaunt, Master Sage, speaking to a curious merchant, Year of the Helm |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2009 : 13:14:49
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| Diddo on the Underdark Dunegon Crawls, I have all three of them and they're great. Stardock, especially, introduces a truly nasty dungeon. All the walls are transparent, so you have no idea if that monster charging you will actually reach you, or if it will hit a wall somewhere in between. You don't have to run the adventures that come with them, just mine them for great ideas. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 23 Oct 2009 : 15:59:50
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My own preferred "super-dungeon" is and remains Undermountain. Especially the first Undermountain box contains heaps of ideas for dungeon rooms, and over time I supplemented these with own design (not a lot of that), and rooms or levels lifted from other sources, such as WGR1-Castle Greyhawk, or The Temple of Elemental Evil.
On unofficial-but-not-by-me material with regard to Dungeon rooms, I recommend Steve Allen's Rooms of Undermountain, which can be downloaded from this very www.candlekeep.com (click on "Alaundo's library", then "various unofficial lore", and scroll down until you find it). It's for 2nd edition (which suits me perfectly), but a lot of ideas are edition-neutral. |
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scererar
Master of Realmslore
USA
1618 Posts |
Posted - 01 Nov 2009 : 20:06:10
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| undermountain boxed sets |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 02 Nov 2009 : 22:58:37
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There are loads of great dungeon-building references in print and online, but a new one that's caught my eye is The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis, published by Goodman Games.
Specific to the Realms, dungeons are one of many subjects that got (how sad that tense) fairly short shrift, what with most of Undermountain and the Sword Coast North dungeons not being published. Great topic for an Ed Greenwood's Fantastic Worlds volume, if I did say so myself. |
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Sandro
Learned Scribe
New Zealand
266 Posts |
Posted - 03 Nov 2009 : 06:53:20
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The Tomb of Horrors, too, is a particularly nasty dungeon, available as a free download (updated to 3.5 rules) here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20051031a.
Also, I was always a fan of the trap that Ed used in Elminster: The Making of a Mage, in some tower whose name escapes me, with a room that had a roof that was basically a "bone magnet" -- that is, any player entering their room would have their bones ripped from within them to stick to the ceiling (some kind of will save should negate this, or perhaps fortitude -- vs. death, naturally). Should send a nice message to your PC's after the first one fails their save  |
"Gods, little fishes, and spells to turn the one to the other," Mordenkainen sighed. "It's started already..." |
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Interesting Dungeon Rooms
